Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: GoodReads Choice Award Winners Part II

As promised here are the top non-fiction books of 2012 chosen by GoodReads members! The complete list of award winners, chosen by readers themselves, can be found here.

Best Cookbook: The Pioneer Woman Cooks: food from my frontier by Ree Drummond, noted food blogger and tv personality, includes recipes for every course of a meal and menu plans for a variety of events

Best Humor: Let's Pretend This Never Happened (a mostly true memoir) by Jenny Lawson, the creator of Blogess, depicts humorous events in the noted blogger's life from her awkward Texas upbringing to her relationship with her husband.

Best History/Biography: Elizabeth The Queen: the life of a modern monarch by Sally Bedell Smith draws on numerous interviews and never-before-revealed documents to provide a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

GoodReads Choice Award Winners Part II

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